


learning curve

by triggeringthehealing (froggydarren)



Series: The Claudine Experience [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Gen, Implied Future Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, M/M, Past Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Past Mpreg, Spark Stiles Stilinski
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 20:25:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8299768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/froggydarren/pseuds/triggeringthehealing
Summary: Derek would love to say that he took to parenthood easily. He’d love to be able to relax with the knowledge that he has a handle on things, that he knows what he’s doing. He can’t though.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Full Moon Ficlet](http://fullmoon-ficlet.livejournal.com/429607.html) challenge on Livejournal - prompt #194: parenthood
> 
> This fic is a direct follow up to [a spark of magic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7996309) and will probably make more sense if you read that first.

Derek would love to say that he took to parenthood easily. He’d love to be able to relax with the knowledge that he has a handle on things, that he knows what he’s doing. He can’t though. 

He’s been back in Beacon Hills for three months now, and while he’s been accepted into the pack easier than he expected to, he’s still reeling from shock at what was waiting for him when he arrived. Scott’s been more than welcoming, and there were other surprises that Derek had to adjust to, but those have been minor in comparison. Like that Stiles is in training to be Scott’s Emissary, that Allison and Chris are partnered with the pack in a way that’s entirely unheard of when it comes to werewolf packs and hunters. That Lydia’s abilities extend to kicking ass in ways that terrify him to the core. He’s reconnected with Isaac, who’s Scott’s Second-in-Command and has been, to Derek’s surprise, in touch with Cora ever since she left town. 

There are other things: the Sheriff is in the know, and him and Melissa have been dating for well over a year. Jackson is part of the pack even though he’s still in London, on what Scott calls “an exchange program”, and his place in Beacon Hills is held by a were from the pack that took Jackson in, Ava. 

She moved only a few months after Derek left, and was the one who explained to Stiles, Scott, and the rest of the pack that a Spark and a werewolf can create a child even if they’re both male. She stuck around since then, and fits in unsurprisingly well. 

But the biggest change, the one thing that has Derek’s mind reeling months later, is the bundle of energy currently sitting in his lap and scribbling on one of the coloring page he laid out for her. 

“Dine, that’s not…” he starts when she ignores the lines and scribbles happily. 

They’re in a McDonald’s of all places, because there were superhero toys in the Happy Meal, and Stiles said it was okay. She immediately zeroed in on the coloring pages, and picked one with four empty faces to fill in. 

“There’s no black,” she says with a tone that’s way more dramatic than Derek would expect a missing crayon color to cause. “‘M supposed to draw who’s at the table, but there’s no black,” she says, turning in Derek’s arms and showing him her sad pout. 

It explains the drawing outside the lines, Derek realises. She used the blue crayon for the outline of what looks like wolf ears, pointed and with fuzzy edges. 

She’s seen him in full wolf form since he got back to town, and there’s no question about what she’s trying to draw. But he knows that there aren’t any black crayons, so he’s at an absolute loss about what to do. He glances back to her from the drawing, and finds her looking at him with pleading eyes -- she’s used  _ those _ against him before -- and her chin shows the beginnings of a wobble. 

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly, and doesn’t miss the way her face falls further in disappointment. 

“Dada always has crayons,” she mumbles.

Then she lets out the world’s most dramatic sigh, and turns back to the paper and grabs the blue crayon she’s been using earlier. Derek only just holds back his own sigh -- of course Stiles would be better at this, would have what’s needed to avoid disappointment. 

When they eventually get back home -- Stiles’ home -- Claudine runs off the moment they walk inside, right for her bedroom. She passes Stiles on the way, and doesn’t stop for her usual hug.

“What’s with the little storm cloud over there?” Stiles asks when Derek walks closer.

“McDonald’s doesn’t have black crayons,” Derek says simply, not quite sure how he can explain why that was such a disaster. 

“Oh boy,” Stiles says, but there’s a smile playing on his lips.

“Yeah, apparently  _ you _ always have crayons,” Derek tells him, trying hard to filter out the accusation and disappointment out of his tone. 

At that, to his surprise, Stiles chuckles and shakes his head. 

“What?” Derek asks, a little more edge to his voice. 

“She’s totally playing you,” Stiles tells him, obviously amused. “I absolutely do  _ not _ carry crayons with me at all times.” 

Derek’s shoulders sag, and he’s not sure if it’s relief or more disappointment. He doesn’t know why Claudine would lie to him, doesn’t understand how he didn’t catch the lie in the first place. 

“Hey man, don’t sweat it,” Stiles says, and steps a little closer. “She’s testing you. She’s been doing it to me since she said her first word. Which was ‘Gaga’, by the way, and referred to my Dad.” 

“I don’t…” Derek starts, but he pauses to figure out how to say what’s swirling through his mind. “I suck at this.” 

“At what? Taking care of her?” Stiles asks, and Derek nods in response. 

He’s taken care of kids before -- his cousins before the fire, kids from the pack they stayed with in New York -- but with Claudine, it feels like no matter what he does, it’s  _ not _ the right thing. 

“Did you get her to eat?” Stiles asks, now right in front of Derek. 

There’s a beat, and then Derek nods. It took a while, there was some debate -- and he’s still reeling from debating with a five year old -- but she ate all her food eventually.

“Did you get her home in one piece?’ Stiles asks next, and barely waits for Derek’s responding nod. “Did you lose her while you were out?” 

Derek resolutely shakes his head, because there’s no way he’d let her out of his sight for even a few seconds, not when it’s only the two of them. 

“Then you don’t suck at this,” Stiles tells him. “I forgot to feed her sometimes. I’ve lost track of her several times at the playground, then found her sleeping in one of the tunnels. And there was the time when she had to get her head glued because she cut it open. On my watch. Dude, you’re already winning on all counts mentioned above. And that’s without me telling you about how I used to be as a kid, and the things that ended up happening to my Dad when he was in charge.”

Stiles stops then, and watches Derek like he’s waiting for a reaction. Derek doesn’t know what he’s supposed to say, because while the things that Stiles listed put his mind at ease a little, he’s still wondering if coming back and staying was a good idea. 

“Okay, sit down and talk time,” Stiles says after a while. “Whatever you’re thinking, I’m going to need to hear it so that I can tell you all the ways that you are wrong.”

He grabs Derek’s wrist and pulls him away from the doorframe, heading towards the sitting room. 

“Awfully sure of yourself with that,” Derek grumbles, but he sits down on the couch that Stiles stopped by. 

“Well, I do tend to be right about things,” Stiles says with a grin. “Also, I’m reasonably sure that all the insecurities that are making you look like you want to disappear are the same as those that I’ve fought my way through since Dine was born.” 

Derek frowns, trying to process what Stiles is saying. He’s in awe about how good a handle Stiles has on everything concerning Claudine -- her eating quirks, her moods, her  _ language _ that is occasionally so very different from the English Derek knows. It seems impossible that Stiles would feel unsure about any of it, that he’d feel like as much of a failure as Derek has been feeling since he came back. 

“Don’t frown at me and put away your judgy eyebrows,” Stiles tells him. 

Derek can feel the corner of his lips quirk up, and he follows the half-smile with a Beta shift, letting his face rearrange into his werewolf one. He knows the exact moment that the reason for his shift clicks in Stiles’ mind because there’s a chuckle and seconds later Stiles laughs out loud. 

“Oh my god, you’re an asshole,” Stiles says when he starts calming down. “I forgot your eyebrows pull a disappearing act when you change.” 

Derek shifts back, and the air is already a little lighter, tension loosening between both of them. 

“I missed it,” Stiles admits. “All of the others keep their eyebrows. Granted, Scott’s are the only ones worth noticing, because they’re almost as impressive as yours.”

“Are you saying that my eyebrows are too big?” Derek asks, but his tone is light. 

“They do tend to carry conversations all by themselves, from what I recall.” Stiles grins, and he lifts his hand up to run a finger over one of the eyebrows. He flinches away when Derek’s eyes follow the movement as much as they can. “Shit, sorry, personal space and all,” he rambles and tries to move away.

Derek lowers the hand that he has on the back of the couch, and he puts it gently on Stiles’ shoulder, giving it a squeeze. 

“It’s okay,” he says, and he watches Stiles’ eyes widen. 

He leaves the hand on Stiles’ shoulder and watches as Stiles glances to it and then back to Derek. Since he’s been back, Derek didn’t really initiate any physical contact between them, and neither did Stiles. It lingers on his mind, of course, but the last thing he wants is to mess up what they have now, the easy communication about everything else, Claudine included. What they had before he left was not really serious, at least Derek never got that impression from Stiles. They were only serious enough in that they were exclusive -- an agreement that was never spoken though -- but they never went on the traditional dates or told anyone about their relationship, whatever it was then. 

Derek would be lying if he said that he doesn’t think about a relationship now, one that’s not only sex. He’d also be lying if he said that even back then it wasn’t something he wanted. Right now though, their daughter takes precedence to his own feelings about Stiles, no matter how fast they’re growing. 

“Thank you,” Derek says, breaking the silence that settled between them. “For what you said about Dine,” he adds quickly, to avoid confusion. “I… I’m really in a completely foreign territory with all that… with her.” 

“I was too, man,” Stiles replies with a reassuring smile. “I mean, let’s ignore the fact that until about halfway through the nine months before she was born I didn’t even have an idea that she was  _ possible _ . When she was born, it took Dad, Melissa, and about half the pack to get me through the shock and the cluelessness. Isaac’s really knowledgeable on all things baby equipment, by the way. That was a shocker.” 

Derek isn’t surprised, really, and he smiles. Isaac, underneath the shell he’s developed thanks to his Dad, has a nurturing core, though he doesn’t show it much. 

“I don’t know if I’d have managed the way you did,” Derek admits quietly. 

“You would have,” Stiles tells him. “You’re already more than just managing. You love her, and that… that matters,” he says with fondness. 

It’s something that Derek didn’t have to think about, from the moment that he first caught the scent of someone with Stiles’ and his own scent mixed. It was immediately easy, because the combination of their scents was something he used to cling to even before he left town. He knows that admitting that he took one of Stiles’ shirts when he and Cora drove away -- just to hang on to that mixture a little longer -- is still far off. But having that scent around all the time is making it impossible  _ not _ to love Claudine. 

“I do, I love her,” Derek says, his mind adding “ _ and you _ ” to the declaration. 

“Then that’s enough,” Stiles says with a smile that makes Derek’s heart soar with the hope that maybe one day he’ll be able to say more. 

**Author's Note:**

>   
> [my tumblr](http://froggydarren.tumblr.com/) || [my sterek fic tumblr](http://triggeringthehealing.tumblr.com/)  
> 


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